“American Eden” biography of David Hosack (1769-1835) was nominated in 2018 for the National Book Award for Nonfiction Pulitzer Prize. David Hosack was a pioneer in medicine, botany, education and physician. After returning from medical studies in London and Edinburgh, he saved Alexander Hamilton’s son with the help of a powerful medicinal plant by the name of : Common name (Lojabark) Botanical name (Cinchona) Family name (Rubiaceae). He became the physician to Alexander Hamilton and his family. He was able to purchase 20 acres of land from where Rockefeller Center is built today. He created the first public botanical garden in the United States called Elgin in 1801. His personal botanical garden was more of a laboratory than a beautiful botanical garden. Here, he trained physicians in pharmaceutical research (like what we have today: CDC or CRISPR laboratories. Read about the historic ‘Famous Duel’ and so much more A wonderful and rewarding read in history for us all to know…
Beatrix Cadwalader Jones was born (1872-1959) into a family of socially prominent New Yorkers who maintained a summer home called Reef Point in Bar Harbor, Maine. Married Max Farrand in 1913 at the age of 41, her first and only marriage. One of the finest landscape architects of her time. Internationally known for her knowledge of plants and her keen sense of design, who was the only woman founder of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Her work includes more than 200 known privet gardens, estates and institutions in the United States and elsewhere.
She was a Force of Nature. She was the first consulting landscape architect at Princeton University, a designer of gardens at the White House, the University of Chicago, the Morgan Library and so much more. She had a close relationship with her aunt Edith Wharton. Beatrix Farrand wrote several books: “The collected Writings of Beatrix Farrand”, “Landscape Gardener”, “Private Gardens, Public Landscapes”, “The Bulletins of Reef Point Gardens” ,”Plant Book for Dumbarton Oaks” and more. Read her books and/or Biography by Jane Brown(1995) “The Gardening Life of Beatrix Jones Farrand.
Public garden designer in New York City and director of The Conservatory Garden in Central Park, which she rescued and restored (1982-1983). Her work includes: Bryant Park, The New York Botanical Garden, Madison Square Park and so much more…
She is the author of: “Parks, Plant and People: Beautifying the Urban Landscape” winner in 2010 of the America Horticultural Society National Book Award. She was the Medal winner in 1993 for the Elvira Broome Doolan Award from GCA. The Garden Club of America presented to her for her diligence and belief in the refreshing quality of plants, coupled with a sensitivity for people. The book must be amazing just like her.
Entomologist, behavioral ecologist, and a professor at the University of Delaware, Oxford and Pennsylvania. He is the author of :“Bringing Nature Home” (2007), his updated and expanded paperback “How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants” (2009) and his latest book “Nature’s Best Hope”(2020) He received in 2008 the Silver Medal by the Garden Writers’ Association for “Bringing Nature Home”.
GCA in 2013 presented Douglas W. Tallamy, entomologist, author, dedicated teacher and a charismatic speaker an award. His research of the synergy between native plants, insects, birds and other wildlife in our local environment won him the Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation and the Tom Dodd, Jr Award of Excellence. In 2018, he also received the AHS B.Y. Morrison Communication Award. We have three wonderful books by Tallamy that tells it as it is. Great read…Thank you, Doug!
He grew up on Long Island and is an amazing author and journalist activist. He is the Lewis K Chan Arts Lecturer and Professor of Practice of Non-Fiction at Harvard University. Pollan writes about the places where nature and culture intersect on our plates, on our farms, gardens and in the environment .He is the author of: “The Botany of Desire, A Plant ‘s – Eye View of the World”‘(2001). Pollan presents case studies that mirror four types of human desires that are reflected in the way that we selectively grow, breed and genetically engineer our plants. It was one of the ten best books of 2006 by New York Times and Washington Post. It won the California Book Award, the Northern California Book Award, the James Beard Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The book received the Borders Original Voices Award for best non-fiction work of 2001. And was recognized as the best book of the year by the American Booksellers Association and Amazon.com Netflix created a four part documentary series based on Cooked (2016) and documentary adaptations of In Defense of Food(2015) and The Botany of Desire(2009) both premiered on PBS. Read more …………. it is fascinating and Michael Pollan is brilliant.